id alert 1006 method branding

New Identity AlertJune 2010

N E W I D E N T I T Y A L E R TJune 2010

An occasional survey of new corporate brand identities compiled from on-line news sources by Method Branding.

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the wordmark, and no circles. Yet other pages feature the wordmark and part of the circles used as a graphic element. Finally, some pages have no brand identity marks at all and their sites listed by country are still branded as Fortis.

One gets the distinct impression they do not know what to do with their new brand identity.

ageas.com

Among the brand identities featured in this issue are Primerica, Cable & Wireless Communications, Yellow Pages (Canada), Everything Everywhere, CNO Inc., Australia Unlimited, Hong Kong, and Astral.

Update Sometimes, after a brand identity is featured in this newsletter, more information becomes available. Either the rationale for the rebranding is explained further or more aspects of the branding are revealed. This is usually not remarked upon, since it is usually not remarkable. Ageas, however, is an interesting exception.

The last issue featured the new name and brand identity for Fortis, a European casualty of the financial sector meltdown. The issue showed the wordmark that was unveiled with the announce-ment that the company would change its name to Ageas, pending shareholder approval in April.

Once that was approval was granted, the company unveiled its new brand mark: the wordmark surrounded by a swirl of multi-coloured circles.

There are a couple of interesting points in all this. First, the deliberate step the company took in unveiling its new name and brand identity. It’s not clear exactly what was gained by unveiling part of the new brand identity, but not the full mark. Why not just state what the new name will be and leave the launch of the whole brand identity until later? Or, on the other hand, show the full mark right from the start?

The other puzzling aspect is that they actually use both the wordmark on its own, and the wordmark surrounded by the circles. One gets the sense they don’t really know what to do. Click through their web site. You will find some pages with the wordmark inside the circles. Other pages have

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http://www.ageas.com



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Previous BrAND iDeNtit y

AusTRALIA On May 14, the Australian Trade Minister, Simon Crean, unveiled the country’s new brand, Australia Unlimited. The objective of the new brand, the minister stated, was to sell Australia to the world as a great place do business, not just as a holiday destination. The press release announcing the new brand stated that as part of the branding process, eight concepts were tested in 14 countries (including Australia), with about 1,000 interviews in each country.

Comment When Toronto unveiled its Unlimited brand five years ago (see New Identity Alert, July 2005), it was roundly criticized as vacuous, and poorly executed. So now Australia has produced its own spin at being unlimited. Have they fared better? On the whole, no. One understands that the kangaroo brand was a tourism-focused brand which did little to help trade, or economic develop-ment for Australia. But this new brand identity won’t help much either. The problems begin with the basic idea of unlimited, which of course, is silly. Nothing is without limits. Imagine building a ski resort in Australia. This is as realistic as growing

pineapples in Toronto. The Australia Unlimited mark does not have much to commend (though it is better than Toronto’s). Those are apparently boomerangs, though they look more like brackets, which speak to containment, not to Unlimited. And then, what exactly does the white line through the right bracket signify? Branding is about differ-entiating yourself. Australia Unlimited fails because it does not create a unique brand; and worse, by being so ordinary, it demonstrates the limits of this brand.

brandaustralia.gov.au



http://www.brandaustralia.gov.au



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HoNg KoNg A revitalized city brand – “a refreshed dragon icon” – was launched by Hong Kong at the end of March. The new brand identity is said to represent five core values “that Hong Kong people cherish and aspire to: Free, Enterprising, Excellence, Innovative and Quality Living.” The original dragon brand identity was first launched in May 2001. In addition to a new Brand Hong Kong web site, another site, facesofhongkong.com, has also been launched which invites the global audience to visit and learn about local people and listen to their stories. It also encourages Hong Kong residents to post their own photographs.

Comment This is unfortunate. Not so much because it is that terrible (it isn’t), but because it is an evolution of one of the best place brand identities. It is, also, an evolution that is inferior to the original. The dragon, a wonderful metaphor for that city, has been dramatically reduced in favour of ribbons. The ribbons would have been fine as supporting graphic elements, but don’t tell as compelling a story as the dragon does.

The previous brand identity was applied in a similar fashion, with ribbons of colour as support-ing graphic elements, and was vibrant and lively.

Even after nine years, the original brand identity appeared fresh and relevant, at least from this side of the world. If there was a need to tinker, they should have worked with the other elements around the dragon and logotype, upgrading how it is presented without touching the dragon and logotype.

brandhk.gov.hkfacesofhongkong.com


http://www.brandhk.gov.hk

http://www.facesofhongkong.com



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CABLE & WIRELEss CoMMuNICATIoNs The end of March saw the launch of the new brand identity for part of the troubled Cable & Wireless, which has split into two (the other part is Cable & Wireless Worldwide, the fibre network and large telecom systems supplier). Cable & Wireless Communications is a full-service telecommunica-tions business, operating in the Caribbean, Panama, Macau, Monaco and islands in the Indian Ocean, South Atlantic and the English Channel. The company is based in London.

Comment This is perplexing. Billed as a “demerger” the company essentially retains its old name (technically, it was previously Cable & Wireless International), and describes its new symbol as “an evolution of the iconic Cable & Wireless ‘blue globe’ logo, which has been in existence as the Group identity since 1986.” Both companies are still Cable & Wireless (the other opting for a Crate and Barrel look-alike wordmark). The new symbol for this half of Cable & Wireless is also not quite ground-breaking, bearing a resem-blance to the Barclaycard symbol. The typographic style selected for the logotype does not work

either. On the other hand, the most fascinating part of the new brand identity is the various icons and drawings on the web site. Looking like a Spirograph gone crazy, they are nonetheless quite inventive and arresting. From drawings of a hand, landscape, flower and profiles, to phone icons, these graphics are quite unique and add a dimension to the web site not found elsewhere.

cwc.comcw.com


http://www.cwc.com

http://www.cw.com



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PRIMERICA More fallout from the financial services meltdown of two years ago has resulted in Citigroup disposing of its insurance subsidiary, Primerica, to a private equity company this past April. As a result, Primerica recently launched its new brand identity. Headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, the company claims it is the largest independent financial services marketing company in North America, with approximately 100,000 licensed sales representatives. Primerica identifies its primary market as “middle income families by helping them make informed financial decisions and providing them with the strategies and means

to gain financial independence.” Primerica sells term life insurance, annuities, mutual funds and other financial products, and also claim they insure more than 4.3 million lives.

Comment Strong, simple and red, white and blue. What else could be expected for this insurance company? The tight interlocking rings are hardly original (quick, how many other brands use this device, not including the Olympics and Audi?), but are still apropos in this context. With the rings’ black outline and the straightforward black logo-type, the brand identity does not pretend to being

an upscale brand. It is firmly rooted as a “meat and potatoes” brand identity, serving middle income customers. This is further reinforced by the company’s web site, which features straightfor-ward, simple images and a simple design with large, clean type. This is a company that knows who it is, even if one of its executives got a bit over enthusiastic at the brand launch.

primerica.com


http://www.primerica.com



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CNo F INANCIAL gRouP At their annual meeting in May, shareholders approved changing the name of the company from Conseco, Inc. to CNO Financial Group, Inc. A holding company, it operates mainly through three insurance subsidiar-ies: Bankers Life and Casualty Company, Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company and Washington National Insurance Company. Based in Carmel, Indiana, CNO describes itself as serving “working American families and seniors by helping them protect against financial adversity and provide for a more secure retirement.”

Comment For a financial services holding company, the new brand identity is more appropriate than the previous “stairway to heaven” symbol. It certainly is not as retail-focused as the marks for their operating subsidiaries. The new symbol, while more “holding-company-like” is also both some-what ordinary and a bit silly. Did they really have to place the letter O inside a lowercase N inside the letter C? The overall effect is a symbol with ele-ments that are not quite balanced, with the outside blue strokes (the letter C) appearing thinner than the inside areas.

Still, it is not clear why they could not have simply rebranded, remaining as Conseco. What is not known is whether prior to being renamed, the company was referred to as Conseco or as CNO, their New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol. One can only assume that outside of a small group of institutional investors, most of their stakeholders referred to them as Conseco.

cnoinc.com


http://www.cnoinc.com



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CoRELogIC Previously the information solu-tions group of The First American Corporation, this company began trading at the beginning of the month as CoreLogic. The company describes itself as “a leading provider of consumer, financial and property information, analytics and services to business and government…and is a recognized leading provider of mortgage and automotive credit reporting, property tax, valuation, flood determina-tion, and geospatial analytics and services.” Based in Santa Ana, California, CoreLogic says it has over 10,000 employees globally with revenues of $2.0 billion in 2009.

Comment The press release credits Dutch artist M.C. Escher for inspiration for the new symbol, and says it communicates the brand promise of “Dynamic Insights.” Well at least they didn’t refer to thinking outside of the box. But this is a well designed brand identity and an improvement over the previous one. The symbol may really not communicate dynamic insights, and it may not be the most original concept, but it does work well with the name. It does communicate logic, and the grey triangles and red diamond shape all sharing the same point at the centre certainly also commu-nicates core. Even the logotype has less to do with

being dynamic and is more inline with supporting the name. The company’s web site and collateral material, with a series of angular shapes emulating the symbol, is well done. This just demonstrates, as opposed to the CNO symbol on the previous page, that it is possible to have a well designed symbol based on the letter C.

corelogic.com


http://www.corelogic.com



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sAPIENs This provider of insurance software solutions launched its new brand identity last month. This follows the recent acquisition of another insurance software developer. Sapiens describes itself as “a leading global provider of business solutions for the insurance industry, helping modernize business processes and en-abling insurance organizations to adapt quickly to change.” Based in Rehovot, Israel (which is located just south of Tel Aviv) and with offices in North Carolina, England and Japan, Sapiens serves its customers in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Comment This is a good example of forgettable design. While certainly better that the previous mark, it is not very good. What exactly is that swoosh on the letter A? What is it trying to commu-nicate? It is also poorly done, beginning by overlap-ping the letter S and ending just past the right diagonal stroke of the letter A. In the final analysis, all it communicates is simply a bad cliché, just like the chess set photographs used on their web site. One would have thought that a company creating sophisticated software for large, global insurance

companies would present itself in a more sophisti-cated and creative manner. This either did not occur to them, or if it did, they failed miserably.

sapiens.com


http://www.sapiens.com



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CoLLIERs INTERNATIoNAL This global real estate company unveiled its refreshed brand identity this past April. Colliers International describes itself as the third largest commercial real estate firm and as “a global affiliation of indepen-dently owned commercial real estate firms.” Based in Seattle, Colliers claims it has 12,700 employees in 294 offices in 61 countries, and that it manages 1.1 billion square feet, with revenues of $1.6 billion. It is a subsidiary of FirstService Corpo-ration, whose FirstService Real Estate Advisors (FirstService REA) was brought under the Colliers umbrella earlier this year.

Comment This brand evolution follows on the heels of the new brand identity launched by a number of high profile break-away Collier offices (see Cassidy Turley, New Identity Alert, March 2010). This is a well done evolution of their previ-ous brand identity mark. Even without the gradient, the blue area is lighter, and a bit more energetic. The ratio of blue to the yellow/blue/red stripes is now more dynamic and the rectangle’s round corners give the mark some humanity. This more approachable look is principally communicated by the upper and lowercase Colliers. The overall shape is not as tall as the previous mark, which is also a

positive step. (A square would have been more interesting, but then the mark would be encroach-ing into American Express’ look.) If anything can be criticized about this evolution, it is the shape. One wonders what other options they explored and could have settled on. Certainly there are other possibilities that would not have given the new mark the look of a label. The double-edged sword of rounded corners.

colliers.com


http://www.colliers.com



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YELLoW PAgEs Canada’s Yellow Pages Group launched its new brand identity this past March. Since publishing its first directory in 1908, the company has become “Canada’s leading local commercial search provider and largest directory publisher.” They publish Bell Canada’s and Telus’ directories, as well as a number of other telephone directories across Canada, and a number of online directories which they claim attract over 7 million unique visitors per month. Based in Montreal, the company has 2,300 employees in Canada and 350 in the United States.

Comment Not surprisingly, part of the impetus for the new brand identity was to remove the reference to a printed directory in the symbol. Increasingly, directory searches are conducted online and on mobile devices. The “phone book” (and telephone booths) are increasingly anachronistic, soon to be relics of the past. The new brand identity is gener-ally well done, with a contemporary feel. The symbol’s button look has a friendly, approachable feel. It’s good that they resisted keeping the rectangle as the holding shape. One wonders, though, why the hand has the break to delineate the middle finger? Given the complexity in the

symbol (even the hand’s grey is not a flat colour), why resort to drawing the hand in a manner used when coarse black and white printing was the standard used for creating graphics? Also puzzling is the large yellow area over part of the symbol and logotype on the corporate web site. This is sloppy and does not add anything to the brand identity.

ypg.comyellowpages.ca


http://www.ypg.com

http://www.yellowpages.ca



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BrAND iDeNtities of the joiNt veNture PArtNers

EvERYTHINg EvERYWHERE The name and brand identity for British joint venture wireless company, formed by Orange and T-Mobile, was unveiled mid-May. Everything Everywhere is the moniker for this joint venture by French and German telecommunications companies. The press release states the company will maintain both the Orange and T-Mobile brands, “with each brand having its own (over 700) shops, marketing campaigns, propositions and service centres. However, behind the scenes, the two brands will be run by one company, with one team and one vision…” The company will start operations on July 1, with a

customer base of 30 million people, and over 16,500 employees.

Comment With these two huge European telecom-munications companies combining their wireless services in Great Britain, one wonders if this is just the “first act,” with more to come. At a quick glance, it doesn’t seem to make sense to merge operations, but leave the market-facing brands intact. One can’t help but wonder if in a year or so, the company will announce that one or both of the existing brands will be replaced (with something new?). They also chose a new name that has

nothing to do with operations and everything to do with retail marketing. But yet, a good tag line or slogan is not a brand name. What has been created is not a brand identity, just a slogan. It will be interesting to see just how these two rivals play together, and what they will concoct for the British market. For their sake, hopefully, it will be better that this effort.

orange.comt-mobile.co.uk


http://www.orange.com

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk



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HAROLDGREENBERGFUND

FONDSHAROLDGREENBERG

AsTRAL This Canadian media company launched its new brand identity late last month. Astral describes itself as Canada’s “largest broad-caster of English- and French-language pay and specialty television services…largest radio broad-caster… and) one of Canada’s most dynamic and innovative outdoor advertising companies.” They also claim to operate more than 100 web sites. Based in Montreal, Astral has over 2,800 employ-ees across Canada.

Comment The company wanted something less corporate, that conveyed “knowledge, passion and imagination” as well as “human warmth and emotion, within a defined and responsive structure that is grounded and resilient.” These are lofty and, yes, reasonable objectives. These are also objec-tives that have not been met. The idea is there, the execution is nowhere to be found. One has to only consider the MSN butterfly as a symbol (also made up of several colours) that would convey what Astral wanted. They obviously could not copy MSN, but there are so many possibilities that would have been superior to the letter A symbol they have. In

the end, they have a symbol that is fractured, somewhat hard to read and does not bring clarity to their message…something a broadcaster would think to be of at least some importance.

astral.com


http://www.astral.com



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WIPo On April 26, the 40th anniversary of the entry into force of the WIPO Convention and the 10th anniversary of World Intellectual Property Day, this international organization unveiled its new brand identity. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which was founded in 1967. It describes itself as “dedi-cated to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property (IP) system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safe-guarding the public interest.”

Comment It is hard to believe that the previous brand identity was created only 40 years ago. The new brand identity is easily a huge improve-ment and is also very good on its own merits. Based on the WIPO headquarters building, the symbol is described as representing the 7 elements of intellectual property (articulated in the WIPO convention): artistic performances and broadcasts; inventions in all fields of human endeavor; scien-tific discoveries; industrial designs; trademarks and commercial names; protection against unfair competition, and all other rights resulting from

intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields.

WIPO falls short, however, in the implementation of its new brand identity. The web site, for example, is a crowded mess with the symbol unnecessarily jammed into the narrow white band on top of the site. It is a pity that this elegant and sophisticated symbol should be applied so shoddily. One would expect much more from an organization that should be much more sensitive to design and “artistic” aesthetics.

wipo.int


http://www.wipo.int



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PLEAsE CoNTACT us If you have any comments about the corporate brand identities featured in this issue, you can do so on our blog:

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If you wish to alert us to new identities that have been just launched or are about to be launched, please email us at the address below.

We also welcome receiving the names and e-mail addresses of anyone you think would be interested in receiving this newsletter.

And if you have a branding challenge, we would of course be pleased to meet you and discuss how your brand can be effectively leveraged to its maximum potential.

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ABouT METHoD BRANDINg A design firm with extensive experience, we work with a wide variety of clients including corporations, government agencies, not-for-profit organizations, start-up companies and others.

We work collaboratively with our clients, and with other branding professionals, to create compelling solutions. The brands and branded communica-tions (brochures, annual reports, etc.) we create endure and build value. Bringing together the science and art of branding, our solutions are engineered to elicit the desired responses from stakeholders, building maximum brand value for our clients.

Note: The brand identities and trademarks in this document are the property of their respective owners. They are used here solely for information purposes.

© Method Branding, 2010

Thank you to Jim Hynes for his proofreading and wise counsel.

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Philip UngerPresident and Creative Director

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